SPaceship Earth Question.

[The Horned King]

Ok, so sat having my breakfast with 45 more days until I head back to the world, watching a video of spaceship earth, (Jeremy Irons Version of course!) and I have this wierd thought. How do you reckon they got all the ride vehicles on the track? With haunted mansion the track is fairly flat. So it wouldn't have been to difficult.

I can only think of two ways.

1. The cars were attatched to the track at the load/unload and were slowly winched up to the top with cables and pulleys,(a bit like when they do ride enveloping on coasters), and or with the motors on the track to assist and then slowly adding one car at a time until they were all added. (So eventually the first car added would have made a complete loop and joined back at load area.

2.the track was incomplete back at ground level and had a straight section where the cars were rolled onto one at a time and slowly nudged with a ratchet type device to hold them until the next one was added. So on and so forth.......

Anybody know or have any other theories?

[DonaldDuckUSA]

You know, I never thought about that. I'm looking forward to the replies. I just wanted to add that I love the Jeremy Irons version. It needed an upgrade, but he's so awesome.

[CaptSmee]

The Jeremy Irons version is the best version ever...I'm not an engineer but I'd assume they laid the track then put the ride vehicles on one at a time

[WDWdreamer87]

There's an elevator. :)

[JerseyDad]

....the guest 'loading area' in SE is fairly flat ...so that would have been the location with the greatest "ease" to load the ride vehicles.

....fyi ....the Haunted Mansion ....overall .....is far from being a "flat" ride. There are some pretty pronounced changes in elevation.

....I think that the "one at a time addition" with the motorized system assistance is likely the way they were "loaded"

[GoBlueLacheta]

I would imagine that they put each individual passenger section on at the hub and kept sliding the cars throughout the track until the loop was completed.

[The Horned King]

....fyi ....the Haunted Mansion ....overall .....is far from being a "flat" ride. There are some pretty pronounced changes in elevation.

Yeh, didn't word that one correctly. :blush: In comparison it is fairly flat. Haunted Mansion is a gradual climb up to the ballroom scene then a drastic elevation change back to the graveyard scene. In comparison to spaceship earth however it is reasonably flat. It doesn't have the two major slopes to the top.

[BigB]

Depending on how the "vehicles" are grouped they either did them one at a time or they did one group at a time. Hook the lead car up and moved them till there was enough room for the next car. I wouldn't be surprised if there is a "vehicle loading section" where they can change out the cars to do maintenance. There would have to be several vehicle to motor connections to support the massive amount of weight. Figure each car weights 500 pounds empty, add 4 average adults at 150 pounds, low balling here, that would make each car weighing 1100 pounds times how ever many cars. So, there would be multiple connections to the drive system as well as multiple engines to move and hold back that amount of weight.

[The Horned King]

Interesting to think about though. Once all the cars are on then the strain should be reduced on the drive mechanisms as the cars coming down to unload should mostly counter the weight of the cars leaving the load area?

[PETE FROM NYC]

Possibly with switches like on RRs.